THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS SELF-CONSTRUALS AND PERCEIVED IMPORTANCE OF INTERACTIVE CONSTRAINTS

Focusing on three interactive constraints, this paper aims to extend the findings of Kim reported in 1992 by comparing the ways in which interactive constraints are perceived across individuals with individualistic and collectivistic orientations. We hypothesized that interdependent self-construals would correlate positively with concern for other's feelings and concern for avoiding devaluation by the hearer and that independent self-construals would correlate positively with concern for clarity. Participants included individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds (a total of 308 undergraduates) studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. After being presented with four conversational situations, participants rated the perceived importance of each constraint in relation to each situation. They then completed the Ego-Task Analysis scale to measure the independent and interdependent dimensions of their self-construals. The results indicate that the degree of independent and interdependent construals of self systematically affect the perceived importance of interactive constraints.